Gibbs, Redmond receive monetary grant
by Cindy A. Abole, Public Relations
Graduate
student Terra Gibbs, left, and Medical Scientist Training Program student
Nicole Redmond were named as the 1999 United Negro College Fund/Merck Science
Fellowships.
Terra Gibbs and Nicole Redmond have been named recipients of the 1999 United Negro College Fund (UNCF)/Merck Science Research Dissertation Fellowships.
Redmond and Gibbs are considered among the top biomedical research trainees in the nation. They join a field of 147 elite biomedical research fellows who were named in the undergraduate, graduate and postdoctoral levels since the program's inception in 1996.
The award provides a maximum amount of $40,000 and consists of a fellowship stipend of up to $30,000 for the award recipient and a $10,000 department award grant.
“I'm an advocate for any type of research.” said Redmond. “Within the M.D.-Ph.D. program, there are no real easy choices as it relates to communications between scientists and clinicians. It gives us a chance to walk in one another's shoes.”
Redmond and Gibbs will attend Fellows Day in June at the Merck Research Laboratories in New Jersey. Each will be mentored by a Merck scientist. Throughout their fellowship tenure, they will have the opportunity of reporting on their research progress and presenting related papers and reports.
A third-year molecular and cellular biology major in the College of Graduate Studies, Gibbs is from Detroit, Mich. Her interest in research work sparked as a biology student at Benedict College participating with the Minority Access Research Careers Program. It allowed her to conduct research work at Washington State University and the National Institutes of Health in Maryland. In 1995, she worked with amino acid compositions at the Merck Research Institute in New Jersey.
“I'm really excited over this great opportunity,” said Gibbs, who wants to pursue prostate cancer research this summer. “It will open new things for me in my goal to conduct post-doctoral work.”
Gibbs hopes that this award inspires other graduate students to apply to the program, especially minorities.
Columbia native Nicole Redmond is a third year student in the Medical Scientist In Training Program. A graduate of Wofford College, Redmond is currently conducting pharmacology and psychology research through MUSC's Alcohol Research Center. She has conducted previous research with Emory University and Vanderbilt University Medical Center.
“I look forward to the mentorship,” said Redmond, who was formerly treasurer of the American Medical Association-Medical Student Section and co-president of the Student National Medical Association. “Research is such a creative process where people are striving to be creative and develop new ways of thinking. It will allow researchers to increase the diversity of thought.”
Before being named a UNCF/Merck Graduate Research Fellow, she was awarded an MUSC Alumni Association Scholarship, American Diabetes Association Medical Student Research Fellowship and an Early Acceptance Recipient from the College of Charleston.